Dec 07/Jan/08

Despite a setback in the US market, mobile WiMAX (seen by some as an alternative to mobile phone network-based Internet access) is set to take off within two years. This, at any rate, is the prediction of analyst Juniper, which says use WiMAX will grow sharply between 2010 and 2013, by which time there will be 80 million mobile subscribers globally.

Whilst admitting that this will represent what it calls 'a single digit proportion of the global mobile broadband base', Juniper nevertheless reckons this will be 'a tremendous achievement for this new technology platform', adding that it has recently been boosted by the ITU's endorsement of it as an IMT2000 specification.

Juniper points out that worldwide, more and more Mobile WiMAX 802.16e trials and network contracts have been unveiled. It says over 50 were announced in 2007 alone.

Juniper's comments follow news that two American mobile networks, Sprint Nextel and Clearwater, have dropped joint plans to build a nationwide WiMAX-based network. Consultancy Analysys says this decision 'confirms the riskiness of a strategy to move quickly to mobile WiMAX,' although it acknowledges that 2007 was 'an otherwise positive year' for Mobile WiMAX.

 

Juniper estimates that the value of Mobile WiMAX service revenues globally will be more than $23 billion per annum by 2013. For users, the significance of all this is that WiMAX offers a flexible alternative to GPRS broadband, with potentially faster speeds and lower costs.